Throwing a Beauty and the Beast Birthday Party

If you ask me, you’re never too old to have a Disney themed birthday party!  That’s why for my 27th birthday my husband and some friends helped me plan and attended a Beauty and the Beast birthday party.  This is my third year throwing a Disney party: last year it was a Frozen party, and the year before that Wreck-It Ralph (hoping to get a blog post up on that eventually, as I had put it on my old blog but it since got deleted!).  Whether you’re planning a party for a young child or a group of adults, I hope some of the things that I did for my low-budget party can help you plan yours!

Food

Parties are all about the food, right?  So I wanted to do a number of Beauty and the Beast themed snacks and desserts.  Here’s the menu I put together:

Fruit crostini

I knew I wanted to do something with baguettes to be French and all.  I bought a baguette but realized it was a few days before the party and wouldn’t be fresh, so I decided to toast it and make a crostini.  This one was super simple: thinly slice and toast the bread in the oven for about ten minutes or until it looks good, spread with mascarpone cheese, and top with berries (I used raspberries and blueberries).  These went quickly and were a big hit!

Baguette with Spinach dip

The morning of the party I picked up a fresh baguette to serve with spinach dip.  I made this light spinach dip from The Cookie Rookie which I cooked and served right from the crockpot – very easy!

Teapot cookies

I got a teapot cookie cutter (check out this similar one from Amazon:R&M Teapot 3.75″ Cookie Cutter in Durable, Economical, Tinplated Steel).  Make sure that you pick cookies that will hold their shape well with a cookie cutter.  The first ones I did were a sugar cookie recipe that just ended up looking like blobs!  So I used a family favorite Christmas cookie recipe since I knew that those were good for holding their shape.

Rose Cupcakes

My friend makes these amazing cupcakes!  She started with a red velvet cake and put them into a really cool rose shaped pan that gave them this look (similar to this one:  Rose Baking Mold Cake Pan DIY Mold).  They didn’t have frosting due to the appearance, but we slathered grey stuff onto them and they were delicious!

Grey stuff

My friend also made grey stuff that we mostly used as icing for the cupcakes.  I don’t know exactly which recipe she used, but there are a ton online, including this one from the Disney Diner.

Drinks

Cocktails by Cody has developed some really cool Disney-inspired adult beverages.  He claims to be coming out with a recipe book eventually, but I haven’t heard updates on that in awhile.  Right now the ones you can find have the ingredients but not the ratios, so we had to play around a little bit.  I do hope he comes out with a cookbook soon!

Burly and Brawny

This was definitely the favorite drink.  We found that the amaretto was really strong, so we just put a splash of that, maybe a shot or a little less of whiskey depending on how strong you like it, and then fill the rest up with black cherry soda.  It was so good!

Belle of the Ball

I struggled a lot with the ratios for this one, so I do hope Cody eventually gets that book out.  You can’t read the sign in the picture, but the ingredients were chocolate vodka, crème de banana, and milk.  My issue was that when there was too much milk it didn’t have much flavor, but if you added more banana/chocolate vodka the drink was way too strong.  If anyone else tries this one I’d be curious to know how you did it!

Décor

Streamers

I’ve found that streamers are a very good way to increase the “party atmosphere” of a room for a low budget.  I bought red and yellow streamers and hung them from the ceiling, as well as behind the food table to create a nice backdrop.  Although it didn’t help that my cat apparently loves to eat these streamers!  I would have done balloons too, but I’ve had pneumonia and didn’t have any extra breath to spare 😉

Beauty and the Beast hallmark/Disney items

I already owned a bunch of Beauty and the Beast items as it is my favorite movie, so I set them out to decorate.  These included a snow globe, Chip cup, “Be Our Guest” sign, Silhouette statue from Hallmark, and a pillow.

Chandelier

I’m lucky enough to have a Silhouette machine that I love (Silhouette Cameo Electronic Cutting Machine Starter Bundle) and can do amazing things with paper.  One of the designs I found was this chandelier, which I was able to have the machine cut out and then it only took a step or two to put together.  A fun touch!

Sheet music luminaries

I printed sheet music from Beauty and the Beast from my computer, and again used my Silhouette to cut out the shapes of Belle’s silhouette and roses.  If you don’t have a silhouette you could use a punch from a craft store or just do it freehand – any shape would work!  Then I put them together to stand up like a bag (I had to tape pieces of sheet music together) and put a flameless candle inside!

Activities

Movie viewing

Of course the main event of the party was actually watching Beauty and the Beast!  We viewed the film, and then afterward went into some of the special features.  We had to watch our favorite (and pretty terrible) deleted scenes!

Cards Against Humanity – Disney edition

For adults only parties, you can find a printable version of Cards against Humanity, Disney style.  If you’re not familiar with the game it’s very similar to Apples to Apples, except the cards are all dirty or inappropriate.  It’s hilarious though, especially after a few Burly and Brawnys!

Disney Scene-It

More appropriate for all ages, we also had a lot of fun playing Disney Scene It (Scene It? DVD Game – Disney 2nd Edition).  There were a number of Disney experts at the event so it was a fun and competitive game!  They do a good job of making this accessible to kids and adults, providing different level trivia cards that you can use.

Have you ever had a Disney themed party before?  What did you do for it?

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